Endless Lifetimes
by open hearts catch dreams
Summary: "What do you think I should study this time around?" "Pathology?" "How about veterinary medicine?" "Well, considering how well you get on with wolves..." A thousand years after the end of season 4, this one shot explores a possible future for some of the characters. Klaroline with mentions of Delena. Told in second person narrative. Don't believe it warrants a T rating.


**AN: I did a thing. Not really sorry.**

**This has been killing me for over a season because I truly adore Caroline and Tyler...but Klaus and his regard for Caroline that slowly evolves into a real affection and love just gets to you and grows on you (like fungus) and now I completely ship them, too. And the end of the season sold me on them.**

**So while I should have been working on the next bit of my own novel, this happened instead. Its more of a long drabble than even a one-shot, since nothing really happens; its more character driven than plot driven. I just wanted to have some fun with narratives and explore a possible future, way, way down the line. So it's all written second person, present tense, and its very raw - barely proof read, since I just finished typing.**

**Its mainly Klaroline, but Delena has an appearance and there's just a faint touch of Matt/Rebecca. Enjoy and I'd love to know your thoughts. This is only my second attempt at writing in the VD world, so hopefully I didn't butcher anyone too badly.**

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The world has changed around you for millennia, but these last thousand years have been different.

You have not been forced to endure the passing of time alone, or with the shattered remains of your blood family. You have not had to guard your thoughts, out scheme your brothers and betray your sister. You have not melted into shadows and existed only to the night. You have not experienced all consuming rage or killed just to feel alive.

You are many thousands of years old, but it is just in this last millennium that you have truly lived, and lived one hundred lifetimes, each as precious as the other. And all of those lives you lived with the same person; the same shining light who showed you how to spend a forever.

The world is a new place again. Science has leaped forward, medicine beyond imagining, but people still age and die; they still tell faerietales and myths to the new generations. They still do not have the capacity to cope with the immortality of a vampire, and so you know the day will always come when it is time to leave.

You will live anywhere in the world; see it all a country, a town at a time, hiding your frozen youth from the frailty of the human inhabitants by always moving on. You do not care. Places mean very little when you have endless life.

It is the people with you that keep immortality from becoming a curse. Not everyone is as lucky as you.

…

"We're lost," She says, and you can see that spark of frustration in her eyes as she throws the map down on the dashboard.

Large paper maps like this are considered a novelty in these times. They are still printed and given to people – 'look what people had to navigate with years ago!' – despite the advance in technology meaning you can now entrust your entire journey to satellites that will never lead you astray.

Finding their own way and reading maps, as much as it frustrates you, is a tradition for you both. It is how you began on your eternity, one thousand years before, and so this is how you will continue.

"No we're not," you say, laughing already and keeping your eyes on the road ahead. The wheel is smooth under your hands, warmed from the sun, and the car hums faintly and musically as you speed along. "We're fine. We'll be there before dark."

She huffs dramatically in the seat next to you and snatches the map back again. You love her more each day for that – she has become so worldly. She is frozen in the body of a seventeen year old girl, but her mind was always mature and in the years since the death of her human life, she has learned and grown. But no matter how much she learns and sees, she is always, always the same person you fell in love with.

Her blonde hair spills in waves about her face and her skin glows under the sun shining through the windows. A delicate ring on her finger shines brilliant blue; the lapis lazuli daylight ring she has worn since her turning.

"I can't believe it," she says, lowering the map to look over at you. Her eyes are shining with joy, now – all frustration forgotten – and a smile parts her lips back. "Its been so long, and we're actually going to be in the same place at the same time in our lives! I can't wait to see them!"

"Calm down, Love," you laugh. "Have you decided how old you're going to be this time?"

She sighs in contentment, leaning back into the leather seat. "I think I'll be in college," she says conversationally. "I was the high schooler with the hot older boyfriend last time, but I like the prom committees and its always fun to see the school drama, so at least I'll get some of that in college. What do you think I should study this time around?"

"Pathology?" you suggest in jest, and are not surprised when she smacks you across the arm, expression stern before she breaks into a smile and giggles like she did so long ago when you read out her Miss Mystic Falls application at the Pageant.

"How about veterinary medicine?" she asks, dropping her eyes back to the map. "All the little pets that need help…"

"Well, considering how well you get on with wolves, and the fact that you once made a steady diet of rabbits-"

"Hey!" she interrupts, though she is still laughing.

"Forgive me," you say in mock seriousness. Before she can reply, there is a buzzing, and she pulls out a phone.

She gives the lit up screen an enduring look and accepts the call before lifting the phone to her ear. This she still does, although with their hearing, both of them can hear the caller just fine, even had the phone been buried in their packed boxes.

"Rebecca," she greets, tone a mix of exasperation and amusement. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" You are a little proud of how much she sounds like you.

You can hear your little sister respond, "I just arrived at your place and it's completely boarded up. Where are you?"

You chuckle and answer, knowing she will hear you. "We've moved on, Little Sister. Time to see a new place and settle down again. And we have some people to catch up with. See you in another lifetime."

You hear Rebecca sigh, but it is with a light heart, not the hurt that she used to feel. Matt lived his human life a long time ago, but in it, he taught Rebecca a lot about love, and she mourned him, but has been happier for knowing him. In a detached way, you are happy for her, too.

And she is learning, as the blonde beside you is, that time is not fragile when you are immortal and a lifetime apart can be a good thing.

"See you in another lifetime," Rebecca says. You can hear her smile. "Be safe, both of you."

You look over at the vampire in the passenger seat as she hangs up the call. She looks back.

"You could at least have told her we were going," she chides, but her voice is soft.

You smirk. "I have to keep her on her toes. It was more fun this way. And we're here, Love."

She looks out the window, and you lean over to catch her expression.

The house you have pulled up before is nothing like the riverside cottage you lived in for a few years last century; or the gothic castle you stayed in for a summer fifty years ago. It is something else that you have decided to trial. You may as well see which houses you like best if you are going to be moving a lot, after all.

It is a quaint place, set back from a quiet street. An iron railing fence surrounds a wild front garden and a winding path leads to an open porch. The house has a bay window and a steep gable roof.

To you it is simply a house, but to Caroline, it is clearly something more.

No matter how many homes you seem to inhabit, she seems to reserve a feeling, emotion or expression for each one. All that matters to you is that you keep finding ones that make her smile like she's watching the sun rise as her eyes well with tears. She is your home.

"It's perfect," she says.

You have learned to understand this. Caroline looks at their homes with two pairs of eyes; the soul that will live there, and the vampire that must thrive there. When she says it is perfect, it is because she can imagine trying to do the gardening but getting frustrated and storming inside. She can imagine curling up in front of a fire and looking out the bay window. She can imagine coming in, setting her keys on the table and complaining about college – even though she loves it.

But she can also see that the street is quiet enough to sneak into the nearby woods to blow off steam. She can see that the town is friendly enough and large enough to compel people for regular meals.

"Come along," you say. This car is old by the world's standards, but still highly advanced from the car you were driving when Caroline first turned up in New Orleans and said she was ready to see the world at your side. The door opens when you press a button.

Caroline hurries to get out of her side.

"We'll get the boxes later. Come and look," you say, and lead her up to the gate. This is one thing that you are always careful about. You will not live in homes with wooden fences; no matter that a picket fence is part of the American dream. You may be safe from any plain wood shard, but you are all too aware that not everyone is. Having a picket fence or wooden bedstead is not safe when the smallest accident can take the person you love most away from you in an instant. This fear is the single one left that haunts you.

The house stands empty – white washed walls and hardwood floors in blank rooms. A large fireplace in the room with the bay window is cold and dark, kitchen counters at the back are gleaming and bare. The bathroom has not even got a curtain over the tub.

You delight in Caroline's face; a radiant smile that makes her shine as she walks from room to room.

If you thought you were wrapped around her little finger a thousand years ago when she still craved the ghost of her human life, you do not know what to call this.

There is a great fissure in your chest that has grown and festered since the day you became what you are; becoming infected with betrayal and resentment. Each time you move, you start a new life, and you watch her let joy and love pour into these empty houses, you feel that break knit. In just a thousand years, she has almost repaired the damage caused in twice that long and you revel in having an almost whole heart to give her now.

You did your waiting, and she gave you her heart to carry; bruised and battered, but whole and strong. And it feels good that the heart she has carried in return is finally in one single piece.

There is a knock on the open door downstairs and a voice rings through the empty house, echoing against the white walls and rebounding up the stairs.

It is a voice that you know Caroline has been waiting to hear.

"Caroline?"

She looks at you; uncertainty and glee in her face, and then she is gone in a rush. You blaze after her, freezing on the stairs in time to see Caroline catch another girl in a fierce hug in your new hallway.

They are both crying and laughing at once; arms tight, hair mingling and a bursting halo of light around them as the sun pours in from the front door.

Another figure leans against the porch rail outside. Tall and lean, still in a very worn leather jacket with a head of dark, dark hair that shines in rainbows, is Damon.

The two girls part.

Elena looks the same as you remember from two hundred years before; dark haired, smiling and content. You had a chance meeting in Venice and ended up travelling as a quartet for a while. Before that was six months in India, during which the world rejoiced in finding a permanent cure for cancer.

"Klaus," Damon nods.

Holding a grudge for eternity is draining, and in their case, unhealthy. Bonnie died a long, long time ago. So did Jeremy; this time as an old man, after a full life, leaving behind a hoard of grandchildren. All remnants of both Elena and Caroline's human lives back in Mystic Falls have long been buried. The nightmares became ghosts, and the ghosts became whispers, until even the whispers made their peace.

They just have each other, and they are as strong together today as they were all that time ago when Silas was threatening their world.

With as much as they like to catch up, you and Damon found a way to make your peace – a feat easier than anticipated, given you did save his life and you had been able to work together before.

You return the nod and the greeting over the girls' heads.

"How was the drive?" Elena asks. They manage to separate and you all congregate on the porch, sitting on the steps since there are no other chairs around.

"Fine," Caroline says, before shooting you a look. "Though I'm sure we got lost several times. I was not born to read a map."

"You did fine, Love," you say, smiling. "Though taking a detour past a cemetery may have been a little morbid for a Sunday morning."

Caroline lets out a growl of frustration – this has never stopped being adorable to you, and it was the one instance she misread the map – and Elena laughs. Damon pulls that strange half-smirk from one side of his mouth, but the expression softens to one of genuine tenderness when Elena leans against his shoulder.

You look away but there is no sudden burst of resentment in your chest; no stab of jealousy or irritation. You do not begrudge Damon and Elena their happiness or peace.

You've known what it was to live a life alone with your nightmares, hiding in the shadows from your own father, fearing the anger of your siblings. You have felt more loneliness than anyone should, and as Caroline smiles up at you, you find yourself smiling back.

You do not need to be jealous, because you know now that she was put on this earth for you, as you think you were for her.

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**AN: Thanks for reading :) All feedback appreciated**


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